Fieldwork

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered...

Where are you living?What are you doing?What are your relationships?Are you in right relation?Where is your water?Know your garden.It is time to speak your Truth.Create your community.Be good to each other.And do not look outside yourself for the leader."

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time!"

"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.

"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

"The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from you attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for."​Attributed to an unnamed Hopi elderHopi NationOraibi, Arizona

A pair of Thylacines. Photo by Baker; E.J. Keller. Report of the Smithsonian Institution. 1904

I'm grieving. And I'm cold. So cold in fact that I can't feel my feet.

In the end the cold gets the better of me and I have to leave. The desire to get warm wins out over my desire to stay and grieve some more, sharing tears with the others round the dwindling fire.

It's night and I've been standing on the pebbles of Brighton beach in a circle with a motley crowd of twenty or so others. We're here to remember lost species, to hold a posthumous funeral ceremony to commemorate them, in particular the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) which was pronounced extinct in 1936.

Some of the artists and students from ONCA, the Brighton gallery who’ve organised this event, have made a willow and paper statue of the Thylacine and we've carried it here through the streets. Ringing the bell of extinction as we process down the Old Steine.

"Wake up," shouts flautist Andreas at the head of the procession. "It’s time to wake up!"

The few passersby look bemused. Cars speed past. Can they all be oblivious to what’s going on?

It really is cold. Freezing it says on my app. Despite this, all the way here I've felt moved and sad.

As I listen to others in the circle name species that have gone, I feel the profound power of this simple gathering, of the act of remembering.

"Thylacine.""Northern white rhino, lost in January of this year."A particular frog, "extinct last month.""The wolves and bears of this land."The red gazelle.The galapagos mouse.

The list goes on. I'm shocked most by recent losses. Species gone forever through hunting, habitat loss, a warming planet. Because of us.

For the vast majority of human history, we lived in close contact with nature. Now 80% of us in the UK and more than 50% of the world live in towns and cities.

We’re losing our contact and our connection with nature.

Not only is this affecting our health and wellbeing - there are lots of credible studies that show how much we need nature for our mental, physical and emotional health, like this one from Stanford University - but also by spending very little time in natural and wild spaces, we don’t see what’s happening to them.

The EU referendum in the UK has just been won by Leave, and as the UK faces Brexit, I saw this post on Facebook. It sums up why we need to work together, why connection is better than separation, why love must win in the end....